Impact of Rate Design Alternatives on Residential Solar Customer Bills: Increased Fixed Charges, Minimum Bills and Demand-Based Rates

Joyce McLaren; Carolyn Davidson; John Miller; Lori Bird

doi:10.1016/j.tej.2015.09.005

Impact of Rate Design Alternatives on Residential Solar Customer Bills: Increased Fixed Charges, Minimum Bills and Demand-Based Rates

Joyce McLaren, Carolyn Davidson, John Miller, Lori Bird

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Utilities are proposing changes to residential rate structures to address concerns about lost revenue due to increased adoption of distributed solar generation. An investigation of the impacts of increased fixed charges, minimum bills and residential demand charges on PV and non-PV customer bills suggests that minimum bills more accurately capture utilities' revenue requirement than fixed charges, while not acting as a disincentive to efficiency or negatively impacting low-income customers.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	43-58
Number of pages	16
Journal	Electricity Journal
Volume	28
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2015.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tej.2015.09.005
State	Published - 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Inc.

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-6A20-64849

Keywords

distributed solar
rate design
residential solar
utility rate

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abstract = "Utilities are proposing changes to residential rate structures to address concerns about lost revenue due to increased adoption of distributed solar generation. An investigation of the impacts of increased fixed charges, minimum bills and residential demand charges on PV and non-PV customer bills suggests that minimum bills more accurately capture utilities' revenue requirement than fixed charges, while not acting as a disincentive to efficiency or negatively impacting low-income customers.",

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AU - Davidson, Carolyn

AU - Miller, John

AU - Bird, Lori

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Utilities are proposing changes to residential rate structures to address concerns about lost revenue due to increased adoption of distributed solar generation. An investigation of the impacts of increased fixed charges, minimum bills and residential demand charges on PV and non-PV customer bills suggests that minimum bills more accurately capture utilities' revenue requirement than fixed charges, while not acting as a disincentive to efficiency or negatively impacting low-income customers.

AB - Utilities are proposing changes to residential rate structures to address concerns about lost revenue due to increased adoption of distributed solar generation. An investigation of the impacts of increased fixed charges, minimum bills and residential demand charges on PV and non-PV customer bills suggests that minimum bills more accurately capture utilities' revenue requirement than fixed charges, while not acting as a disincentive to efficiency or negatively impacting low-income customers.

KW - distributed solar

KW - rate design

KW - residential solar

KW - utility rate

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M3 - Article

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ER -

Impact of Rate Design Alternatives on Residential Solar Customer Bills: Increased Fixed Charges, Minimum Bills and Demand-Based Rates

Abstract

Bibliographical note

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

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